TheFind.com Reviews in Mountain View, CA

Pros

The engineering and UI team have created the most powerful product in the space, and barring the upper management, this was the nicest and most talented group of people I've ever worked with. Three years after leaving this company I still automatically refer to "us". When I visit the site now I can still see the cutting-edge ideas being tried out, and I check in often and come away with great ideas. People work hard here, but the culture supports flexible schedules and generous time off. Although I did sometimes work on urgent projects til the a.m. hours, overall I would say I probably worked under 8 hours most days.

Cons

The company seems to be succeeding in spite of constant terrible decisions on the part of upper management. Most projects, implemented on a "drop everything" basis, have nothing to do with improving the search experience, and there was a serious plague of projects when I worked there that seemed to have no justification at all except to make weak press releases about minor visual changes.

The CEO doesn't seem to respect his team, and when I was there he became inappropriately angry when confronted with reasonable concerns about priorities and projects that seemed out of whack. It also seemed to me like he had no real idea that several of his managers (including the search manager referred to by the other reviewer) were spinning everybody's wheels with no real plan to get results or measure them. The employees he respected the most seemed to be the ones who accomplished the least, and who's paychecks and expense packages were the most serious drain on our resources.

 I disagree with the other reviewer that PM's weren't necessary - since they were let go, there has been little apparent improvement in the actual search, and I still see serious issues with data freshness, replicated results, and irrelevant results. Also, projects that expanded TheFind's presence, such as widgets and partnerships, seem to have vanished from the space. Finally, the brand appears to have lost its energy and individuality - the overall look seems generic.

Advice to Senior Management

Leadership requires a strong business plan, not just pushing the idea of the minute. Focusing on the core search functionality seems pretty key to bringing back users and getting more users. It also requires a leader who inspires respect - and leaders who do not respect their own excellent teams fail to earn respect in return.

Pros

Great environment, great people and some cool technology

Cons

Sometime u dont get heard

Advice to Senior Management

develop a sense of forward looking vision and focus on real problems!

Pros

Salaries are competitive with the industry. We are creating the most comprehensive shopping search engine in the world. The company is small enough to have everyone make a difference. The company has raised 3 rounds of financing. The most recent round in 2007 was for $15 MM.

Cons

Management suffers from poor planning and strategy. The CEO has had success in selling companies before but consumer internet companies are not his forte. Traffic to the site has not increased at a sufficient rate. Unless we get a 4th round of financing, we'll probably run out of money by next year.

The hiring practices here are odd. We had a team of product managers despite having only 20 employees at the time. They were all laid off last year when we decided we didn't need them anymore. Duh! How many PMs does a startup need? One, at most, or just hire a consultant. We hired a search marketing guy this year and management was excited about using search to drive profit. After a few months, we figured out that search marketing doesn't work for us and the search guy is gone.

Advice to Senior Management

I hope they figure out how to make a better shopping search engine that attracts more users. Otherwise, I am praying that we're bought by a decent company.